LOOKING BACK: May 12

50 years ago this weekThe need for a new junior high school for black students was singled out as one of the most urgent problems facing the Tuscaloosa City Schools system.

By Betty Slowe | Retired Librarian | The Tuscaloosa News

50 years ago this weekThe need for a new junior high school for black students was singled out as one of the most urgent problems facing the Tuscaloosa City Schools system.Dr. R.C. Partlow announced a $110,935 hospital improvement grant from the National Institute of Mental Health that would make possible the equipping and staffing of a modern physical therapy department that would serve the needs of more than 300 patients with physical disabilities.Honored in The Tuscaloosa News’ “People of Note” column were Dr. L.B. Lamm, director of the Tuscaloosa Veterans Administration Hospital; Mims Torrey Jemison, who worked at Allen & Jemison for 48 years; and Herbert S. French, assistant vice president and loan officer of First Federal Savings and Loan Association.Tuscaloosa News Managing Editor Ben Davis was elected the new president of the Alabama Press Association; Norman Bassett of The Tuscaloosa News was re-elected treasurer of the organization.Joab Thomas was named assistant dean of the University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences.

25 years ago this weekDan Carden, headmaster of West End Christian School, was named headmaster at American Christian Academy.County engineers were unsure whether they could save a 100-year-old bridge, part of the old Jasper Road, about 26 miles north of Tuscaloosa. A tractor-trailer rig hauling two bulldozers damaged the bridge, which had a maximum load limit of 10 tons.The First United Methodist Church of Greensboro approved purchase of a 20-stop pipe organ costing $235,940, to be built and installed by the Holtkamp Organ Co. of Cleveland, Ohio — the same company that built the organ in the Moody Music Building at the University of Alabama.The long-awaited secure juvenile detention center was delayed again. The contractor was incorporating authorized changes in the facility, according to the construction company spokesman.An agreed-on settlement of assault charges against two of three brothers in a 1988 attack on University of Alabama football players Bobby Humphrey and Vantreise Davis fell through when two of the brothers scheduled to enter pleas to misdemeanor charges changed their minds.Author and educator William Stanley Hoole received the 1969 Harry Pritchett Preservation Award by the Heritage Commission of Tuscaloosa County.The Rev. Duncan Hunter, associate pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Tuscaloosa, was named 1989 Tuscaloosa County Citizen of the Year.Joab Thomas and Philip Austin emerged as the two top candidates for the post of chancellor of the University of Alabama System.

10 years ago this weekThe Tuscaloosa City Council, with a tie-breaking vote cast by Mayor Al DuPont, decided not to give Stan Pate $16 million in tax breaks for water and road improvements at the site of his Midtown development.Deaths this week included attorney Walter Crownover, who had practiced law in Tuscaloosa for 42 years, and Ruth Bolden, who helped found a library in West Tuscaloosa and worked in the civil rights movement. The West Tuscaloosa branch of the Tuscaloosa Public Library is named after Bolden. Also, Green Pond Fire Chief Eddie Suggs, 28, died in his sleep.After more than two years of construction, the dedication was held for the $58 million Shelby Interdisciplinary Science Building on the UA campus.

Five years ago this weekThe Tuscaloosa Housing Authority voted to slash the salary of longtime assistant executive director Willie “Dino” Fort. His salary was cut from $160,000 to $107,000, based on a report generated by a site visit by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials that said Fort’s salary and the salary of former executive director Rick Herbert was out of line for the size of their organization. Herbert was making $170,000.Two state agencies, the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Trust for Historical Preservation, named the 106-year-old Spiller building to their “Places in Peril” list.Tuscaloosa legislator and physician Robert Bentley kicked off his bid for governor with a two-day tour starting in Tuscaloosa.A Tuscaloosa developer offered the city $700,000 for the property of Fire Station No. 1, at the corner of Sixth Street and Lurleen Wallace Boulevard South, with plans to open a Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches franchise on the site.Deaths this week included Duncan Hunter, 91, the longtime leader of First United Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa.

One year ago this weekThe Kilgore House on the UA campus was slated for demolition after it was put up for sale, but had no takers. The Queen Anne-style house was built for Bryce Hospital’s first engineer and his family in 1890.Kristy Curry was hired as the new women’s head basketball coach at UA.According to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual rankings, Auburn President Jay Gogue was the second-highest paid public college president in 2011-12, earning $2.5 million. University of Alabama President Judy Bonner’s salary was $535,000, ranking 69th on the survey.Tuscaloosa area high school seniors named 2013 National Merit Scholars were Zoe Bakker of Northridge High School and Jonathan Hess of Holy Spirit Catholic High School.UA football coach Nick Saban was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.